When
UN's Dep't of
Public Info
Goes Private,
All Bets Are
Off for
Reform
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 27 –
The UN
“Department of
Public
Information”
needs to
re-think the
way it spreads
information,
or seeks to
impede it.
On
February 22,
DPI invited
members of the
Free
UN Coalition
for Access
to a
meeting,
saying that a
similar number
of officials
of the old UN
Correspondents
Association
would attend.
From
the beginning
FUNCA has made
it clear that
its all
meetings it
attends are on
the record,
particularly
when with the
UN Dept of PUBLIC
Information.
When
the word
“Public” is in
the name of
your agency,
you should not
assume that
what you say
is in fact
private --
unless you
explicitly
say
differently.
And
yet, DPI's
Stephane
Dujarric is
now calls it
“deeply
disappointing”
that Inner
City Press
reported on
the meeting -
even though,
during
the meeting,
it said it
would.
Dujarric,
in
a letter he
sent to Inner
City Press
past 6 pm on
February 27,
five days
after the
meeting and
two days after
the article
was
published,
that “it was
clearly
understood by
all sides that
there
would be no
reporting or
recording of
the meeting.”
This
is a bizarre
reconstruction
of the past.
It was and is
not the
understanding
of Inner City
Press or FUNCA
-- nor even
that expressed
at the meeting
by UNCA.
The
UNCA
President,
Pamela Falk of
CBS, said
during the
meeting that
Inner
City Press
would be
reporting it.
Nobody
present
contradicted
her,
including her
first vice
president
Louis
Charbonneau of
Reuters, who
went on to
complain in
the meeting
about his
inability in
2012 to
censor Inner
City Press'
website.
What's to be
“deeply
disappointed”
about now?
Click
here where
Inner City
Press says
"you're on the
record" and
Pamela Falk of
CBS, UNCA's
President,
says "he's
going to write
this up." Yes.
But the letter
of the UN's
Dujarric, who
was there,
pretends this
was never
said.
Dujarric's
letter
appears to be
a setting up
an excuse for
him to stop
dealing
with FUNCA on
sorely
needed reforms.
But FUNCA
already told
DPI it
does not view
Dujarric as
the right
interlocutor,
given his role in
accepting
and even encouraging
in 2012
requests by
UNCA to dis-accredit
the
investigative
Press.
His latest
letter is just
another
reminder of
why.
Dujarric
himself,
in DPI's last
meeting just
with FUNCA
(before it
invited
UNCA in to
vent) told
Inner City
Press it was
free to tape
record and
publish. Note
to Dujarric:
if you try to
change the
rules, you
have
to announce it
beforehand,
not try to
impose those
changes
retroactively.
Now, going
forward, we
will run the
clips of these
previous
meetings, for
the UN's
Department of
Public (?)
Information
and its UN
Censorship
Alliance.
Watch this
site.
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